Wear Alexa on Your Face Says LET Lab

LET Lab has published an Indigogo campaign to promote LET VisionAI Glasses with Alexa integration. The devices have a bone conducting speaker and microphone on the frame. They are currently featured on Indigogo for $119 which is positioned as a 54% discount from an anticipated retail price of $259. As of this afternoon, 50 of 200 are claimed and they say they are at 82% of their $30,000 goal. The glasses are expected to ship in May 2018.

Wearable Voice Assistant Access

Voicebot recently reported on a Juniper Research study that showed about 29 million people have access to voice assistants today through ear buds and that number is expected to rise to 285 million by 2022. But, earbuds are only one method for wearable tech that provides access to both audio and a microphone. The new Apple Watch also has Siri integration and can operate without an iPhone. We have AirPods and Pixel Buds that are for in-ear. Now, we are starting to see the front end of the smart glasses category.

Will Glasses Be a Successful Category?

We know that Google Glass was shut down for lack of traction and Snap Spectacles have lost their early momentum. So, some people may question whether glasses are going to be a new category that will be successful. The biggest likely application for connected glasses will be augmented reality (AR), but those applications are not ready yet. Maybe a good trojan horse will be glasses with integrated voice assistants to get people used to glasses-based computing. It’s hard to believe these will be better than AirPods, but consumer choice among form factors will generally be a good thing.